Buying LEGO on eBay

I know a lot of sellers now on Ebay ship worldwide. But I wanted to know from veteran Ebayers here on Brickset that will it be a good idea to list items for sale on Ebay? I have a Bricklink store as well but it takes sometime to sell items on BL as not many people buy from there. I know I cannot list items on Amazon as my country is not on the supported list.

Well, it's free to sign up and a very nominal fee to create some listings. The bulk of the fee is applied once you make sales, which will run about 8%-11%, depending on final value, and which includes shipping fees as well. Add the paypal fees on top as well of course.

Your biggest obstacle early will probably be not having any selling/feedback history. That, combined with the Pakistan location, will be a red flag to many potential buyers.

@Coolsplash - one way to build feedback initially is as a buyer. When you buy items, the sell can/should also leave you feedback.

Also, perhaps start with lower-value sets. I'd be much more comfortable buying a $20 item than a $300 item from a seller with no/low feedback.

I don't think many people even look at feedback anymore. eBay and PayPal have very effective buyer protection policies that remove almost all risk for the buyer. That being said, you will need to be diligent in making sure that you send all orders with delivery confirmation and/or signature required (mostly for large orders) so you don't get burned. If you can't prove that the buyer received the item, eBay/PayPal almost always sides with the buyer.

@Coolsplash - I'm not sure what shipping services are available where you live, but try to only ship via one where tracking is provided the entire way, and always insure.

As an occasional seller, I find it very difficult to make much profit on sales because of the enormous shipping costs. People want cheap, but it's certainly NOT cheap to ship properly and to protect yourself.

@BTHodgeman I agree with you totally. And I used to buy from Ebay before I found Bricklink. I managed to go to a rating of 25 or so back then. But it was all indirect method. I asked someone to pay for me on Paypal, then I used to send him money every few months, was a long cycle. But yes, due to Ebay and Paypal buyer protection it can work and as we know Paypal always takes sides with the Buyer :P

Working on Bricklink I have had my history with Paypal and have learned a lesson to be careful whom I sell the stuff to.

@Odindusk, I agree with you as well. We have Postal service and then FedEx, DHL and other courier services but Postal service is cheap and reliable. And in postal we have Land/Sea, and Air with tracking service.

Maybe there is an internal market in Pakistan? That would be a good way to build up your feedback in a way which is easier for people to buy (percieved lower risk) and then you could move to international selling once you have more feedback.

@Si_Dorking_Surrey_UK, there is a very small market in Pakistan. Problems are serious price hikes and less availability. For instance, I have been selling Ninjago here and other parts of the world since over a year now, and just saw the red theme surfacing locally 3 months back. Cannot forget that moment, this toy vendor is a very good friend of mine and knows what I do. So he was showing the Ninjago, PQ, Cars 1 and Hero Factory 2.0 sets to my son. And my son was like 'Don't you have anything new in Ninjago, my father got these for me ages ago, and we already have the whole PQ range, I don't like Cars 1, and I just got the first Hero Factory 3.0 sets' I felt SO damn proud that day :D

But, in Pakistan there is no online market for Lego, just very very few sellers like me spread out, and trying to make things happen.

I'm going to tell you what happened to me just today. I had bought on eBay a Star Wars Tantive IV. That auction stated that there were no minifigures there. Okay fine. So I was looking to buy them individually so that I could have a complete set. I decided to start from the rarest one: Captain Antilles. I happened to find an auction on ebay of such a minifigure within the EU. I won the auction but when I received the item I realized that the head of the minifig had been swapped for the much more common Rebel Trooper one (#sw187).After a few email exchanges the seller requested that I send the minifig back at my expenses. Clearly, this is absurd, as the price of the international air mail with a delivery confirmation exceeds the price that I paid. I asked for the refund of the price that the head alone has on bricklink but he didn't agree to that. I don't know how it will end but I believe it is pointless to send it back and end up wasting even more money.

So be careful when you are buying minifigs from ebay. Look very closely at the picture! In my case the picture was a bit blurry and in truth it is hard to distinguish the Rebel Trooper's mouth from Antilles' mouth from a few pixels, unless he is being portrayed with his other mouth, the "worried" one.

But who would have thought that there are people out there swapping rare "heads" for more common ones? Did something like this happen to anyone else?

Yes, file a case with EBAY customer support. They are slow, but you will eventually get refunded of the cost of the item and shipping costs. Also, the seller can lose their ability to sell anymore items on EBAY.

It's not quite the same thing, but I recently sold a Hoth-style Leia on eBay since there was a new one in Echo Base. The thing is... the Hoth Leia from 4504 has the 'bun' haircut. When 8038 came out, I thought that hairstyle worked a lot better for the Hoth costume, so I bought an extra set of that hair, swapped them out and sold the bun hair. So the Leia I was selling was a Leia that didn't actually exist in any set, as she had the hair they're now using in Echo Base, but the older style Leia 'flesh' head. Of course, I also explained this in my item description, and also didn't advertise her as being from any specific set. I haven't had any problems yet, but I also don't think I was misrepresenting anything as seems to have been the case here.

The issue has been taken to Paypal and Paypal sent me the automated email asking to fill in the tracking code of the letter in order to respond to the claim. But as I stated, to do that I'd have to pay about 7£ which is more than what I originally paid. I'll try to call Paypal tomorrow and see what they say, because the mail states that shipping cost are on my behalf. But in this situation it would really make no sense to pay 7£ to get 7.50 euros back. I'd save more money by buying the head alone on bricklink...

Luckily the seller eventually realized that it would not be practical to send it back and offered a refund for the head's worth on bricklink as I had suggested.. A happy ending :)I'll be sure to check every pixel of a minifig's picture in the future, though.

Someone clicked 'buy it now' on ebay, and want to send a driver to collect. I understand that if someone comes to collect it needs to be the buyer and they need to have ID, so should I say that a third party can't collect?

Lol, actually, I would "not" recommend Paypal if the buyer intends to pick it up. Paypal will only protect you with "delivery" confirmation. Otherwise they can use Paypal, pick it up and then say they never got it. And then what do you say?

Personally, if you've been paid beforehand in either cash or by Paypal, I wouldn't see any reason why you couldn't release the goods to anyone. It's not like a stranger is going to know where you live and decide on the off chance you are going to hand over the same particular item that was won on Ebay. Over the past twelve years, I've sold this that and never had a problem with people collecting from me - items that cost hundreds too. Equally, if they pay in cash, you save on Paypal fees.

When I sell anything and people pay cash, I always right out a little receipt (x2) and get them to write their address and sign it after seeing any ID. This way you at least have some evidence that it was collected.

Thanks for the insight folks.I called ebay - and yes, they do have phone numbers! in the UK its 0844 545 8179 or 0845 355 3229

I think the risk is only if the item was offered for post OR collection - if you offer it collection only youre ok, as collection is not covered by the buyer protection programme at all. The 'blag' comes when they collect it and say you posted it and it never came.

Theyve already payed by paypal so Ive cancelled the transaction and in future will either offer collection only, or post only.

Presumably it would also depend how the collection was arranged/organised. If done via ebay messaging then there would be a record of arranging collection between the buyer and seller. If done over the phone then there is no record and the seller is much more open to being scammed.

^^ Aye, something similar happened with my sister. She was new to Ebay and sold one of her purses (a nice one) without any delivery confirmation. The buyer questioned its authenticity when she received it and my sister assured her it was real -- it was. So the lady didn't believe my sister (or really did) and filed a claim that she never received it. Paypal disregarded all the emails that clearly showed she did receive it because their was no confirmation.

^ Didn't have cash readily available and wanted to use their credit card?

As long as 'collection' is offered in the listing and is followed through by the buyer 'checking out' using this option before they physically collect, I see no reason why Paypal couldn't be used. By officially checking out using collection, presumably he gives up any means of trying to claim the goods weren't delivered.

As long as 'collection' is offered in the listing and is followed through by the buyer 'checking out' using this option before they physically collect, I see no reason why Paypal couldn't be used. By officially checking out using collection, presumably he gives up any means of trying to claim the goods weren't delivered.

^^ Wow, so if a buyer checks out as 'collecting', collects, goes home, he can then file a claim stating that it's not been delivered? Why would the goods be delivered if the buyer checked out as collecting. How can he claim it's not been delivered if he requested collection? I don't get it.

I know the Ebay policies generally served the buyer better than the seller, but that's ridiculous.

^^ Never had a problem with cash collection either. Only had one issue when a buyer wouldn't do it -- only wanted to use Paypal. Only one reason comes to mind why they wouldn't . . .

Either that or they read about buyers going to supposed to cash exchanges and the money been forceably taken from them (without any goods of course). There were a few high profile incidents of this for car purchases and high-end HiFi purchases a few years back.

To the OP, the one time I can see PayPal working for collection is if the collection is by, say, ParcelForce where they give you a reciept when they pick the goods up.

@bahnstormer - Completely agree with you, only the Ebay payment terms don't allow one to legitimately remove the Paypal payment aspect for collection once it's been offered. If I were to offer an item for delivery or collection with payment by Paypal or cash, there's no way to restrict the Paypal option from the collection option - or so I believe.

When I got back into Lego collecting, I was half considering buying a few sets to sell via eBay but honestly, your experiences have enlightened me to just how many crooks there are out there! I'm amazed that anyone sells Lego these days; there's just so many ways of getting screwed over. :(

Either that or they read about buyers going to supposed to cash exchanges and the money been forceably taken from them (without any goods of course). There were a few high profile incidents of this for car purchases and high-end HiFi purchases a few years back.

If the item is not as described (mostly broken and non lego bricks), should the seller foot the bill for returning it? I have returned an item before and paypal sent me a prepaid postage label but is that standard? I cant remember how I got the label before.